Why did county thwart elderly widow's development plans?

Remember Dorothy English I read with irritation your report on Multnomah County's attempts to keep an elderly widow from developing property she and her husband purchased in 1953 ("Property case goes to high court," Jan. 5). After winning the right to develop her land, this lady met with road block after road block in the form of regulations on hillside development, which, although seen as necessary now, were not required when she and her husband bought the property.

This smacks of an attempt by the county to tie up her plans and buy time until she either gave up or died. It's sleazy! Are taxpayers going to end up being responsible for this mess? What do you think?

I think it was President Gerald Ford who once said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything you have." What happened to Oregon's own Dorothy English is a prime example.

KATHLEEN KEMALYAN Southwest Portland

Go slow on revampI'm the parent of an eighth-grader, set to start high school next year, so your recent editorial ("Portland high schools: Sweeping plans deserve a skeptical eye," Jan. 4) resonated deeply with me.

Once again, Portland Public Schools is rushing to implement a plan that is full of gaping holes, inconsistencies and unanswered questions, as shown in the series of meetings they held throughout the city. Instead of focusing on how to address specific problems at specific schools, they want to dismantle the entire system.

As a real estate professional in Portland, I can see the future chaos of families scrambling all over town once boundaries change and they're no longer in district and their children can no longer continue their education with their peers.

Portland Public Schools needs to focus on its charter to educate our kids, not conduct another social experiment at their expense. Portlanders need to let the school board and our elected officials know this plan must not go forward.

SUZANNE GODDYN Northeast Portland

Avoid a 'remuddling' Portland State University needs to be very, very careful. Its proposed remodel of Lincoln Hall could easily turn into a "remuddle" ("Converting 1912 PSU building a challenge," Jan. 3). A plan floated by Boora Architects would add a radically modern style to a traditional building. Why not complement the intent of the original architect instead of creating a look that in 10 years we'll be wondering how to correct?

If an architecture firm were to try to add a three-story baroque façade to Pietro Belluschi's Equitable Building (now known as the The Commonwealth Building at 421 S.W. Sixth Ave.), most architects would consider it sacrilegious. Yet it's fine to deface Lincoln Hall?

Seldom have I seen an older building that has been altered in such a way that it holds up to what was considered "good design" over time. Too often I have seen buildings where architects feel that they need to make a "statement" or "leave their mark" where maybe they shouldn't have. The design floated for Lincoln Hall is one of those.

SEAN KENNEDY Southeast Portland

Scanner makes sense As a person with 11 pieces of titanium in my body, I get a personal hand search every time I go through security at an airport. I would like to comment on the possible violation of my civil rights if my body is viewed as an image by the operator of a whole-body scan machine.

I would rather an operator see my image than a relative have to try to identify me later by opening a body bag because airport security missed something that a terrorist carried on the plane -- along with his civil rights.

DON WRIGHT Newberg

Please take a map So another couple has become lost using their global positioning device? No wonder.

GPS and Google Maps and other modern direction sources don't take into account closed roads, whether due to weather or because a government agency has closed the road.

One example: When I moved into my place here in the Cascades, south of Bend, both Google and GPS said I could go down one road. However, the road they pointed me toward was inside a state park that had been closed by the state several years earlier. The training I got from being a Boy Scout and the fact that I'm a professional driver got me to my new home without the kind of trouble the people featured in your story experienced.

Moral: Always, always carry a hard-copy map of the area where you're going.

JOHN S. THOMAS La Pine

Does voting qualify you? I've voted in every Oregon election since 1944. Does that make me the most qualified Oregonian to be governor?

TOM WRIGHT Southwest Portland

It's deadly The health care reform bill the Senate wants to pass will only be window dressing in a morgue.

Yes, many Americans die each year because of faulty, greedy insurance companies and their stranglehold upon how medicine is offered to the American people. But unless we include a strong public option in our reform plan, the biggest problems will not be remedied, but will only grow worse.